The Hearing Impaired Smile As Closed Captioning On Television Proliferates

Recently a law was passed to require new televisions be equipped with closed captioning decoders. This will certainly help the more than 24 million Americans who struggle with some kind of hearing loss.

Not only the hearing impaired will gain from this measure. The law’s supporters argue that even people with perfect hearing can really benefit from the inclusion of decoders. Children, as well as adults, with hearing impairments will see this technology as a godsend.

Those who are simply trying to read and spell better in English will also be bettered by the technology. Whereas yesterday’s generations spent most of their time reading and talking with each other, an average person has replace twenty-four hours of those activities by watching television.

Now with closed captioning people are less likely just to sit on their couches and just look at the television. As required by law, all television sets made or imported in the United States after July 1993, with 13 inch or larger screens, must be equipped with the circuitry necessary for closed captioning display.

A top audiologist who works at a preschool claims that closed captioning on television allows those with hearing disabilities access to an entire world they had previously been denied access to.

Kids who suffered from large hearing impairments couldn’t understand television before. And because of a continuous sound distortion, even those who had some hearing ability were losing a lot of information.

Allowing phone conversations to be changed into printed words is the job of the telecommunication device for the deaf (TDD). Some people would compare the benefits of closed captioning to the ones the TDD offers.

Closed captioning can offer one more big benefit. For adults and children who can hear, closed captioning can help them become better readers. Combining the verbal and written words will help both immigrants and illiterate adults.

If you are one of those that prefers to watch regular television and not have to see the closed captioning, you will be able to turn it off. Even those with hearing impairments will be able to keep abreast of local, state and national events.

There are plenty of inequalities involved in the video revolution in America. Hearing impaired individuals don’t have the same access to television shows that we may take for granted.

One mother said that closed captioning has dramatically helped her daughter, who was deaf, by expanding her daughter’s horizon, and these benefits can be found for those who have even a little bit of hearing loss.

This includes 35% of the elderly population who suffer mild hearing loss. There is also the story of the mother of a a boy of 13 who deliberated for some time about whether or not to purchase a decoder.

His mother couldn’t decide what to do regrading purchasing the decoder. But her son learns through auditory means. His mother pointed out that this is an unusual teaching method in light of the circumstance.

In young school grades children are not allowed to sign, or even lip read. The student relies entirely on what can be heard through the use of a hearing aid. This allowed the son to be able to speak on the phone, according to his mother.

She decided to get a decoder because it will help her son improve his reading ability. Closed captioning is usually seen at the bottom of the screen. There are different ways to write it to indicate ways it’s spoken and sound effects.

People who can’t hear well were thrilled to experience the first closed captioned broadcast of the Oscars, which came in 1982. ABC started with sixteen hours of closed captioning programming in 1980. At present, roughly 400 hours of programming include closed captioning during the week.

The three hour blocks we call ‘prime time’ are now closed captioned. This is true on all of the three major television networks. That makes around sixty percent of televisions network programming with closed captioning. Cable networks are beginning to catch up to the networks with closed captioning, and about 2,000 movies have been closed captioned for home viewing.